The kingpin of multi-crore fake stamp paper scam Abdul Telgi died yesterday. He died of multi-organ failure at a state-run Victoria hospital in Bengaluru. He was 56 and was battling for life for about a week. He was on ventilator and life support system after being admitted to Victoria Hospital for meningitis, doctors said. “Telgi is no more. He breathed his last at 3.55 pm. He was suffering from multi-organ failure,” Dr Balaji S Pai of the hospital, who attended on him, said, according to reports.

Here is all you want to know about Abdul Karim Telgi

Abdul Karim Telgi is survived by wife, daughter and son-in-law.

After his arrest in Ajmer in November 2001 in connection with the fake stamp paper scam, Telgi was sentenced to 30 years’ rigorous imprisonment by a court five years later. Besides, he was slapped with a whopping fine of Rs 202 crore.

Telgi’s counsel had in the past alleged in the court that he was administered HIV-infected syringe while in prison, a charge police and the prison authorities had rejected outright.

The kingpin of the scam was lodged at the Parapana Agrahara central jail for the last 16 years.

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He was in news after the then DIG (Prisons) D Roopa recently alleged that Telgi was among several prisoners who received special treatment in the jail. She had said he was given special massages by three or four convicts allotted to him.

Telgi’s parents were government employees who worked with the Indian Railways. However after the death of his father, Telgi was forced to take up odd jobs and used to sell eatables on trains. Eventually he moved to Saudi Arabia.

The security and intelligence agencies had then put the size of the scam at a mind boggling Rs 20,000 crore. However, some other estimates ranged from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore. The scam had affected the country’s financial and other markets.

Hailing from Khanapur in Belagavi district in Karnataka, Telgi began his life as a vegetable and fruit vendor in trains.

After the scam was busted, the investigation agencies discovered that he ran the business like a mega industry by recruiting about 350 agents. They had sold the duplicate stamp papers of various denominations in bulk to banks, insurance companies, stock brokerage firms and the corporates. Top police officers and people in power were alleged to be his accomplices.

The Karnataka government constituted an investigation team called ‘STAMPIT’ but as the countrywide network of the scam unfolded, the probe was taken over by the CBI.

In his first conviction in 2006 under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and Indian Penal Code 120 (criminal conspiracy), Telgi was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and for the remaining 20 years in four different cases.